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Comcast will launch Universal Ads, an advertising platform meant to simplify the ad-buying process for small- and medium-sized businesses.
Comcast has signed deals with media companies including NBCUniversal, Warner Bros. Discovery, AMC Networks, Fox Corp., A+E, Roku and others.
The platform, which will launch in the first quarter, is meant to attract more ad dollars to media companies’ streaming services as advertisers have poured money into tech and social media.

Jaque Silva | Nurphoto | Getty Images

Comcast plans to launch a new advertising platform that will make it easier for smaller businesses to buy ad time — and, the company hopes, to beckon some advertisers away from social media and digital outlets and over to traditional TV’s streaming businesses.
On Monday, Comcast announced the creation of Universal Ads, a new platform for advertisers to buy spots on premium video content on the streaming businesses of traditional media companies. The announcement comes ahead of the annual CES tech conference in Las Vegas.

Comcast has signed partnerships with other media companies, giving advertisers the ability to buy spots on a variety of outlets. So far, Comcast-owned NBCUniversal and ad-supported streamer Xumo are part of the platform, as well as A+E, AMC Networks, DirecTV, Fox Corp., Paramount, Roku, TelevisaUnivision and Warner Bros. Discovery. Others are expected to join in the coming months.
“Universal Ads is intended to create new demand from advertisers who have not traditionally worked with us,” said Mark Marshall, chairman of global advertising and partnerships for NBCUniversal, CNBC’s parent company. “And while we’re starting with streaming and [small- and medium-sized businesses], in a future state this can be for linear and for agencies as well.”
Universal Ads, which will launch in the first quarter, is meant to create an easier experience for advertisers of all shapes and sizes to buy up ad time, which can be a notoriously complicated process in comparison to purchasing ads for platforms such as Meta, YouTube and TikTok, said James Rooke, president of Comcast Advertising. It’s designed to mimic the process of buying ads on social media content and tech platforms.
“The head scratcher is that there’s a sort of large number of advertisers who’ve built their businesses, or started to build their businesses, on the backs of social video,” said Rooke. “Yet when you talk to these advertisers there’s an increasing wish to diversify away from a very limited number of big technology companies.”
Rooke said the challenge has been that these big tech companies “make it super simple to transact on their platforms,” whereas traditional media, or so-called premium content, does not.

Marshall said he and Rooke had been in discussions over the last several months on how to “create new demand opportunities” for the nontraditional advertisers.
Comcast built the free, self-service platform using its ad tech company FreeWheel. Many of the partners that have already signed on are FreeWheel clients.
There are also plans to offer free, automated artificial intelligence tools to help produce the ads, which can be another pain point for smaller companies.
“Universal Ads has a tremendous opportunity to steal market share from our competitors in a very unique and collaborative way that will fundamentally change the advertising landscape,” said Marshall.

Going on the offensive

Jaque Silva | Nurphoto | Getty Images

The media industry has been in a period of tumult, as consumers have gravitated toward streaming services and away from traditional TV.
But further eclipsing this content is the time spent on social media and tech platforms. YouTube continues to grab a large share of TV viewing time, according to Nielsen. Younger generations are leaning more into social media such as TikTok.
Streaming services, from Netflix to NBCUniversal’s Peacock, have been increasingly emphasizing advertising to reach profitability. Streamers have been nabbing a bigger share of ad dollars in recent quarters, but that pales in comparison to the advertising revenue generated by tech giants.
Marshall noted that social media has “generated immense scale” when it comes to the number of advertisers drawn to the tech platforms.
“Take a Meta for example. They have over 10 million advertisers who spend on search and social, whereas NBCUniversal is only in the thousands,” said Marshall.
While GroupM, WPP’s media investment group, called TV “the most effective form of advertising” in a recent report, it expects the segment to grow less than 2% in 2025 to $169.1 billion in total global ad revenue.
Ad revenue for “pure play digital,” which excludes the streaming arms of traditional media but includes platforms such as YouTube and TikTok, is expected to grow by 10% to $813.3 billion globally in 2025, according to GroupM estimates.
In the U.S., social media ad spending is estimated to have hit $90.35 billion in 2024, up roughly 19% from the year prior, and is expected to rise another 13.6% to $102.66 billion in 2025, according to eMarketer.
While industry executives anticipate the ad market will stabilize in 2025 for traditional media companies, the trends of prior years are also expected to continue — meaning ad budgets for digital media will continue to eclipse traditional media.
“You can continue to compete in a diminishing market, or you can go on offense and you can go after where the growth is,” said Rooke. “We have to be fishing in the ponds where the growth is.”
Large-scale advertisers and brands still spend heavily with traditional media outlets when it comes to live sports and events. Fox executives have said the company already sold out of Super Bowl ads for February, which reportedly cost about $7 million each. The college football season, especially with the expanded College Football Playoff format, has also attracted hefty ad dollars.
Key to the Universal Ads platform has been signing up the other media companies, Rooke said, in order to present a unified front in trying to attract more ad dollars from digital platforms.
“In recent years, individual ad platforms and walled gardens have created obstacles for smaller and medium-sized companies lacking the resources needed to effectively manage multiple platforms,” said Amy Leifer, chief advertising sales officer at DirecTV.
Leifer, along with executives from NBCUniversal, Warner Bros. Discovery and Fox, called out the importance of reaching small- and medium-sized businesses as advertisers.
“The idea of empowering small- and medium-sized businesses to connect with audiences through premium content, especially on connected TV, aligns perfectly with the growing demand for flexibility and efficiency in ad buying,” said Ryan Gould, Warner Bros. Discovery’s executive vice president of sales in streaming, digital and advanced advertising.
Media executives recently told CNBC that traditional linear TV is still an important outlet for advertisers because it reaches more demographics than social media does. They also noted that linear and streaming are no longer thought of in different contexts, and are grouped together in conversation.
Advertisers seeking platforms outside social media are “looking for a new product because they’re seeing sort of diminishing returns from the existing channels,” Rooke said.
“They’re running out of new audience,” he said.
Disclosure: Comcast owns CNBC parent NBCUniversal. More

The factory floor of Schneider Electric’s plant in Conselve, Italy, hums with urgency. Workers at the power-equipment company’s facility, which is in the midst of a major expansion, are busily assembling advanced cooling systems for the data centres underpinning the development of artificial intelligence (AI). “The key is the integration of grid to chip and chip to chiller,” says Pankaj Sharma, an executive at the company, referring to a new design it recently developed with Nvidia, an AI chip giant. More

A year ago, a door plug blew out of a nearly new Boeing 737 Max 9 during an Alaska Airlines flight.
The incident thrust Boeing back into the spotlight for safety concerns and manufacturing flaws.
New CEO Kelly Ortberg, who began in the top job in August, is tasked with ensuring Boeing can ramp up production and maintain quality.

Boeing 737 Max aircraft are assembled at the company’s plant in Renton, Washington, on June 25, 2024.
Jennifer Buchanan | Via Reuters

Boeing is embarking on another rebuilding year.
A year ago, the company was thrust back into the spotlight for concerns over safety and quality when a fuselage panel that covered an unused emergency exit door blew out midair from a nearly new Boeing 737 Max 9 operated by Alaska Airlines. The accident terrified those on board though no one was seriously injured and the plane made a safe emergency landing back in Portland, Oregon.

Key bolts were not installed before the aircraft left Boeing’s Renton, Washington, 737 factory, a preliminary National Transportation Safety Board report found, again tarnishing the image of the marquee U.S. exporter.
Boeing’s stock price is down more than 30% over the past 12 months, while the S&P 500 is up nearly 27%.

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Boeing and S&P 500 performance

Boeing’s leaders have spent the past 12 months making major changes that span replacements in its executive ranks, including a new chief executive, to more robust training for hundreds of factory workers, many of whom are new.
The company on Friday outlined its progress over the past year, including initiating random quality audits at factories. Boeing said it has “significantly” reduced defects in 737 fuselages made by Spirit AeroSystems, which it is buying back, and cut down on so-called traveled work, where tasks to build aircraft are done out of sequence, in an effort to reduce flaws. The manufacturer also said it addressed much of the feedback from employees provided during sessions with management throughout the year.

Federal Aviation Administration Administrator Michael Whitaker testifies before the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Aviation at the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 24, 2024 .
Kevin Dietsch | Getty Images

Since the accident, the Federal Aviation Administration increased its oversight of Boeing, capping its production of its best-selling 737 Max jets, though output is still below those levels. FAA chief Mike Whitaker, who said he will step down on Jan. 20, warned the company on Friday that “enhanced oversight is here to stay.”

He said Boeing’s turnaround “is not a one-year project.”
“What’s needed is a fundamental cultural shift at Boeing that’s oriented around safety and quality above profits. That will require sustained effort and commitment from Boeing, and unwavering scrutiny on our part,” Whitaker said in a statement.

Mounting losses, delivery delays

Boeing has not posted an annual profit since 2018.
That year was the first of two fatal crashes of its 737 Maxes that killed 346 people — Boeing’s worst crisis in recent memory. A flight-control system was implicated in both crashes, and the aircraft was grounded worldwide for almost two years.

Arrows pointing outwards

Boeing’s annual net income/loss.
CNBC/FactSet

Other quality flaws emerged over the years, delaying deliveries of aircraft from the 737 Max, 787 Dreamliner and the pair of 747s that will serve as Air Force One, among others.
Since 2019, Boeing has lost more than $30 billion, and its new CEO is tasked with ensuring Boeing can increase production without defects that have slowed deliveries in the past.

In August, the company brought in Kelly Ortberg, a former CEO of Rockwell Collins with three decades of experience in aerospace, as Boeing’s new chief executive, replacing Dave Calhoun.
Weeks into Ortberg’s tenure, Boeing machinists went on strike for nearly two months, a work stoppage that ended after they approved a new four-year labor deal with 38% raises. Some longtime workers sought to have Boeing reinstate pensions, but that was not part of the new labor deal.

Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg visits the company’s 767 and 777/777X programs’ plant in Everett, Washington, on Aug. 16, 2024.
Boeing | Marian Lockhart | Via Reuters

The strike, however, idled production of most of Boeing’s jets, though factories have resumed output in recent weeks. It is setting Boeing up for another year of focusing on stabilizing production to get jetliners to airlines before ramping up further, while Airbus continues to top Boeing delivery volumes.
Boeing raised billions this fall to stave off the crisis. Ortberg also said the company would cut 10% of its workforce of about 170,000 people. Notices started going out late last year. Ortberg said in October that the company has to focus on its core businesses and that it would review its portfolio.
“I think that we’re better off … doing less and doing it better than doing more and not doing it well,” he said on his first earnings call in October.
He spent early weeks of his tenure visiting factories and moved to the Seattle area, where most of Boeing’s production is centered, and has won praise from airline executives who had grown exasperated with the company’s rolling aircraft delivery during a post-pandemic travel boom.

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Bob Jordan, chief executive of all-Boeing 737 airline Southwest, cautioned in an interview last month that it is “really early” in Boeing’s recovery but said he thinks Ortberg understands the depth of the issues at the company.
“He’s not looking at this as a Band-Aid. He’s looking at this as a wholesale change to Boeing,” he said. More

Shares of Rivian recorded their best day ever after the EV maker reported 2024 production and deliveries that were in line with the company’s previously announced expectations.
Rivian stock closed Friday at $16.49 per share, up 24.5%. That is the largest daily percentage increase since the electric vehicle maker went public in November 2021.
Shares of Rivian declined 43% last year as the company burned through cash and missed its production targets.

Rivian electric vehicles (EV) are parked at the Rivian Venice Hub on November 13, 2024 in Venice, California. 
Mario Tama | Getty Images

Shares of Rivian Automotive recorded their best day ever after the electric vehicle maker reported 2024 production and deliveries that were in line with its previously announced expectations.
Rivian stock closed Friday at $16.49 per share, up 24.5% during the session. That is the largest daily percentage increase for the stock since the EV maker went public in November 2021, according to FactSet. The prior record was 23.2%, set in June.

Rivian on Friday said it produced 49,476 vehicles in 2024, including 12,727 trucks and vans during the fourth quarter, and delivered 51,579 vehicles, including 14,183 models during the last three months of the year.
The automaker’s fourth-quarter deliveries topped estimates of 13,472, according to 15 analysts polled by Visible Alpha, according to Reuters.
Rivian in October lowered its 2024 production target to a range of 47,000 to 49,000 vehicles – down from 57,000 units. The company had expected deliveries of between 50,500 and 52,000 vehicles.
The company in October said the adjusted target was because of a “production disruption due to a shortage of a shared component” for its current vehicles — the R1T pickup, R1S SUV and a commercial delivery van.
The company on Friday said the previously discussed shortage “is no longer a constraint on Rivian’s production.”

Rivian’s stock declined 43% last year as the company burned through cash and missed its production targets.
Rivian is scheduled to announce its fourth-quarter financial results on Feb. 20.

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Both General Motors and Ford Motor on Friday reported their best annual U.S. new vehicle sales since 2019.
GM reported 2024 sales of more than 2.7 million vehicles, up 4.3% from a year earlier.
Ford reported 2024 sales of 2.08 million vehicles, up from just under 2 million in 2023.

Attendees view the 2025 Ford Bronco Stroppe Special Edition during the AutoMobility LA 2024 auto show at the Los Angeles Convention Center on November 21, 2024.
Robyn Beck | Afp | Getty Images

DETROIT – Sales of new vehicles in the U.S. continued to rise last year, rebounding from historical lows caused by the coronavirus pandemic and supply chain shortages during the past four years.
American legacy automakers General Motors and Ford Motor on Friday both reported their best annual U.S. new vehicle sales since 2019, led by growth of electrified vehicles such as all-electric and hybrid models.

Those results are in line with industrywide expectations for automakers. Market research firms expected U.S. automakers to report total sales of nearly 16 million vehicles in 2024, which would mark the industry’s best year since selling roughly 17 million units in 2019.
“We got to just under 16 million units, it looks like, for 2024, with strengthening in the last quarter,” said Stephanie Brinley, associate director of AutoIntelligence at S&P Global Mobility. “Given some of the affordability and inflationary headwinds, it’s probably a decent year … It’s moving in the direction we need to move.”
Auto sales in 2025 are expected to continue to grow but still come in shy of 2019 volumes. S&P Global Mobility and Edmunds expect sales of roughly 16.2 million vehicles this year.
Several other automakers on Friday such as Toyota Motor, Hyundai Motor and Honda Motor reported single-digit annual sales increases, also largely in line with industry expectations.
GM remained the country’s top-selling automaker, followed by Toyota and then Ford. Hyundai, including its sibling Kia, ranked fourth, followed by Honda and then Chrysler parent Stellantis, which has experienced significant sales declines in recent years.

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GM, Ford and Stellantis stocks

Stellantis, formerly Fiat Chrysler, reported annual sales of roughly 1.3 million vehicles in 2024 – marking its worst year since 2010, when its predecessor was still recovering from bankruptcy.

Sales results

GM reported 2024 sales of more than 2.7 million vehicles, up 4.3% from a year earlier. The automaker sold 2.9 million units in 2019.
“The driving force for our business is new vehicles with great design and performance across our portfolio, helping our dealers satisfy more customers. We’re carrying significant momentum into 2025,” Rory Harvey, GM president of global markets, said in a release.
GM said sales were driven by increases in all four of its U.S. brands as well as a roughly 50% rise in sales of electric vehicles to more than 114,400 units.
Despite the notable jump in EV sales, the vehicles only made up 4.2% of the automaker’s overall sales. GM estimated it achieved a 12% EV market share in the U.S. during the fourth quarter.
It was a similar trend at Ford, which reported a notable increase in sales of its “electrified” vehicles, including EVs and hybrids.
Ford on Friday reported 2024 sales of 2.08 million vehicles, up from just under 2 million in 2023. In 2019, the automaker sold 2.42 million vehicles in the U.S. For the fourth quarter, Ford reported an 8.8% year-over-year increase in sales to 530,660 vehicles sold.
That automaker said full-year sales of its vehicles with traditional internal combustion engines increased 0.2% compared with 2023, while sales of electrified vehicles rose 38.3% year over year.
Electrified vehicles, including hybrids and EVs, represented 13.7% of Ford’s total annual sales.
Here are other U.S. sales reported Friday compared with 2023 totals:

Stellantis reported a 15% decline in U.S. sales to roughly 1.3 million vehicles sold. The biggest sales drop among the company’s brands was a 29% decline for Dodge, followed by 19% declines for Ram Trucks and Alfa Romeo. Its popular Jeep brand saw sales decline by 9%.
Toyota reported a 3.7% uptick in sales for 2024, despite a 7.1% decline in December. The company sold more than 2.3 million vehicles last year.
Honda announced an 8.8% increase in sales last year to 1.4 million vehicles, including a 9.9% rise during the last month of the year.
Hyundai brand’s sales increased roughly 4% during 2024 to a record of more than 836,800 vehicles.
Kia, a sibling company to Hyundai, also reported record U.S. sales of 796,488 vehicles in 2024, up 1.8% from its prior record set in 2023.

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DraftKings is testing out a subscription service for select customers in New York, as it tries to offset the state’s high gaming taxes.
Subscribers will get a boost in odds on all winning parlays.
DraftKings is the first sportsbook to offer a subscription service.

Sports betting company DraftKings’ logo is displayed on a smartphone screen.
Budrul Chukrut | Lightrocket | Getty Images

DraftKings is upping the ante.
The sportsbook is testing out a new subscription service called DraftKings Sportsbook+ designed to provide paying customers a boost in odds.

The $20 per month subscription service launched quietly on Dec. 28 for select customers in New York and will offer participants up to a 100% profit boost on winning parlays. For example, a two-leg parlay would receive a 10% boost, a six-leg parlay would receive a 50% boost, and an 11-leg parlay would get the full 100% boost. The maximum bet eligible is $25.
New York offers a strong testing ground for DraftKings as one of the top-performing markets for online gaming.
The company could also be looking to help offset taxes in the Empire State. Sports wagering taxes in New York stand at 51%, tied with New Hampshire for the highest rate.
In August, DraftKings announced it was reversing course after announcing it would add a small tax to customers in states that have multiple operators and a tax rate of over 20%.
Others in the industry will be watching closely. DraftKings appears to be the first U.S. operator to launch a subscription service. Parlays, where bettors are wagering on more than one event at a time, are a profitable and growing area for sportsbooks.

In a statement, DraftKings said the subscription service was designed to offer customers an enhanced fan experience by “creating more excitement and value to our extensive parlay offering.”
The news was first reported by Sportico.
The company did not say how many users have signed up so far.
DraftKings is offering the first month free, and then the subscription will kick in.
While the subscription is currently only available in New York, DraftKings said it will consider whether to offer the service in other states.

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The U.S. surgeon general issued a new advisory warning about the link between alcohol consumption and increased cancer risk.
Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy called for additions to labels warning of the connection between alcohol use and cancer risk.
Alcohol consumption is the third leading preventable cause of cancer in the U.S., behind only tobacco and obesity, and increases the risk for at least seven types of cancer, according to the advisory.

A customer drinks a glass of beer at the Saxton Pub in Austin, Texas, April 5, 2023.
Brandon Bell | Getty Images

The U.S. surgeon general issued a new advisory warning Friday about the link between alcohol consumption and increased cancer risk, and pushed for policy changes to help reduce the number of alcohol-related cancers.
U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy said there is a “well-established” link between drinking alcohol and at least seven types of cancer, including breast, colorectum, esophagus and liver. For cancers including breast, mouth and throat cancers, increased risk may start around one or fewer drinks per day, according to his office.

As part of the advisory, the surgeon general called for policy changes that could help reduce alcohol-related cancer. He pushed for alcohol labels to be more visible and include a warning about the increased risk of cancer, to reassess recommended limits for alcohol consumption based on the latest research and expand education to increase general awareness that alcohol consumption increases cancer risk.
The efforts outlined in the advisory are similar to those already implemented to lessen tobacco use, including a slew of mandated warnings on packaging and in stores.
The surgeon general advised people to consider the link between alcohol consumption and greater cancer risk when deciding whether to drink or how much to have.
Alcohol consumption is the third leading preventable cause of cancer in the U.S., behind only tobacco and obesity, according to the advisory.
“Alcohol is a well-established, preventable cause of cancer responsible for about 100,000 cases of cancer and 20,000 cancer deaths annually in the United States — greater than the 13,500 alcohol-associated traffic crash fatalities per year in the U.S. — yet the majority of Americans are unaware of this risk,” Murthy said in a press release.

Shares of alcohol manufacturers including Molson-Coors and Anheuser-Busch initially dipped more than 1% following the advisory.
According to the advisory, 72% of U.S. adults said they had one or more drinks per week between 2019 and 2020, but less than half of all adults are aware of the link between drinking and cancer risk.
Worldwide, 741,300 cases of cancer were attributed to alcohol consumption in 2020, according to the surgeon general.
On average, alcohol-related cancer deaths shorten the lives of those who die by 15 years.
Younger Americans are already increasingly stepping away from alcohol, and many are leaning into nonalcoholic alternatives. About two-thirds of adults ages 18 to 34 say alcohol consumption negatively affects health, versus less than 40% of people ages 35 to 54, and 55 and over, according to a Gallup survey released in August. More

The Department of Transportation fined JetBlue Airways $2 million for repeated delays on four routes, crediting it $1 million for past and future passenger compensation.
The DOT said the fine was the first of its kind.
JetBlue said its on-time rate has improved and urged the incoming administration to invest in improving air traffic control.

JetBlue Airways aircraft are pictured at departure gates at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York on June 15, 2013.
Fred Prouser | Reuters

The Department of Transportation fined JetBlue Airways $2 million for “chronically delayed flights,” the first penalty of its kind, the DOT said Friday.
JetBlue operated four routes that were delayed at least 145 times from June 2022 through November 2023, the DOT said. Those were between JetBlue’s home hub at John F. Kennedy International Airport and Raleigh-Durham International Airport in North Carolina; between Fort Lauderdale and Orlando, Florida, and JFK, and between Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and Windsor Locks, Connecticut, according to the DOT.

“Today’s action puts the entire airline industry on notice that we expect their flight schedules to reflect reality,” said Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg in a news release.

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JetBlue was responsible for more than 70% of the disruptions on the four routes, the DOT said. The airline failed to adjust the flight times “to avoid illegal unrealistic scheduling,” the department added.
The DOT considers a flight chronically delayed if it is flown at least 10 times a month and arrives over 30 minutes late more than half the time. It said it has ongoing investigations into other airlines for unrealistic flight schedules.
JetBlue said in a statement the government has to do more to improve staffing of air traffic controllers and modernize the system, echoing calls from executives at Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and other major carriers.
“While we’ve reached a settlement to resolve this matter regarding four flights in 2022 and 2023, we believe accountability for reliable air travel equally lies with the U.S. government, which operates our nation’s air traffic control system,” JetBlue said in its statement. “We believe the U.S. should have the safest, most efficient, and advanced air traffic control system in the world, and we urge the incoming administration to prioritize modernizing outdated ATC technology and addressing chronic air traffic controller staffing shortages to reduce ATC delays that affect millions of air travelers each year.”

Based in New York, JetBlue operates in some of the world’s most congested airspace. From January through September 2024, JetBlue ranked ninth out of 10 U.S. airlines in on-time arrivals with 71.3% of flights arriving on time, an improvement over 64.9% in the year-earlier period, according to a monthly DOT tally.
The DOT said it would credit JetBlue $1 million of the fine for goodwill compensation already paid to passengers during the investigation’s time frame as well as for compensation that is payable within a year of the order with vouchers to affected passengers paid at at least $75.

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